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Ames's Window Optical Illusion Will Blow Your Mind

by Tim Stevens on June 10, 2009 at 12:15 PM

Need something of an eye-opener on a dreary Wednesday afternoon? Check out the above video demonstration of the Ames window, a compelling optical illusion featuring a trapezoidal window with an angled bar bisecting it as a sort of reference point. As the odd-shaped window rotates, the bar occasionally, and magically, appears to pass right through the frame while the window seems to reverse its rotation.

The illusion was created by American scientist Adelbert Ames, Jr., a researcher at the Dartmouth Eye Institute and creator of a number of mind-bending visual tricks like this. This window is his most mind-warping illusion, and it's easy to see why. Despite how it appears to the eye, the frame is always physically rotating in one direction -- it's just the mind that gets confused by its shape. Now, feel free to go ahead and get another cup of coffee after watching this a few times. Or several more cups of coffee after watching these, too. [From: YouTube, via Kottke.org]

Tags: ames window, AmesWindow, optical illusions, OpticalIllusions, timewasters, top, youtube

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